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Eight new biomass and offshore wind projects announced by the Government

New renewable electricity projects unveiled as part of the Government’s world leading electricity reforms, giving a great boost to green growth and green jobs.

Published on Apr 23, 2014

Eight new renewable electricity projects have today been unveiled by the Government as part of the electricity reforms, giving a great boost to green growth and green jobs.

It is predicted that by 2020 the projects will support 8,500 new jobs within the sector and provide £12 billion of private sector investment. They could add a further 4.5GW of low-carbon electricity to Britain's energy mix, generation enough clean electricity to power three million homes. The projects will also contribute around 15TWh or 14% of the renewable electricity expected to come forward by 2020, helping to put the UK on the way to meeting it's renewable energy target. They will also reduce emissions by 10 MtCO2 per year compared to fossil fuel power generation.

The projects have been offered under Contracts for Difference (CfD), which form part of Government's Electricity Market Reform programme. They include offshore wind farms, coal to biomass conversions and a dedicated biomass plant with combined heat and power. Details of the project are:

"By themselves they will bring green jobs and growth across the UK, but they are a significant part of our efforts to give Britain cleaner and more secure energy."These are the first investments from our reforms to build the world's first low carbon electricity market - reforms which will see competition and markets attract tens of billions of pounds of vital energy investment whilst reducing the costs of clean energy to consumers.

"Record levels of energy investment are at the forefront of the Government's infrastructure programme and are filling the massive gap we inherited. It's practical reforms like these that will keep the lights on and tackle climate change, by giving investors more certainty."

The eight successful projects have been awarded contracts under the Final Investment Decision (FID) Enabling for Renewables scheme, allocating the first CfDs that are being introduced through the Electricity Market Reform programme. Under CfDs, generators and developers receive a fixed strike price for the electricity they produce for 15 years. These contracts are vital to give investors the confidence they need to pay the up-front costs of major new infrastructure projects.